Note 72 — Front matter (continued 4)

(page page 200).—In 1827, Congress granted alternate sections of land for six miles on each side of the line to aid in building the canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. One of these alternates was section 9, town 39 north, range 13 east, embracing what is now the Chicago business center. In 1830, the canal commissioners—Doctor Jayne, Edmund Roberts, and Charles Dunn—proceeded to lay out a town site upon this section; they employed for this purpose James Thompson, a St. Louis surveyor; his plat covered about three-eighths of the square mile. These commissioners named the original streets. The north and south streets they called State, Dearborn, Clark, La Salle, Wells, Franklin, Market, Canal, Clinton, Jefferson, and Desplaines; the east and west streets named by them were Kinzie, Carroll, Water, Lake, Randolph, Washington, and Madison. Many lots were sold at auction in the first year, prices running from sixty to two hundred dollars. The section immediately south was No. 16—-the section granted by the general government in every township as an endowment for public education. Many wise citizens desired this school section reserved from sale until neighboring settlement had brought up the price; but land speculators secured the early sale of the lots, and the resulting educational endowment was meager.